About HERA
In the early 1980’s Dominie Dale, a recent graduate from the Southern School of Natural Therapies in Melbourne traveled and studied homeopathy in India.
At that time she was introduced to and observed the practice of Dr Dilip Dixit in Mumbai. Dr Dixit was a senior consultant of the Institute of Clinical Research (ICR), an organisation founded by renowned Indian Homeopath ML Dhawale in 1975. The ICR had developed a training program aimed at standardising the practice of individualised homeopathy.
Dale was most impressed by the operational understanding the ICR had of homeopathic philosophy and the results she observed in the clinical setting. On returning to Melbourne, she arranged for Dr Dixit to start a training program for naturopathic practitioners and students. In 1983 the first ‘intensive’ was held over four consecutive weekends.
Even though Melbourne had its own homeopathic hospital in the early 1900’s (Prince Henry’s Hospital on St.Kilda Road), by the late 1970’s apart from dedicated practitioners such as Kevin Ryan and Joseph Von Moger there were few avenues for the public to obtain homeopathic treatment. By and large, the nature of the treatment available was in the form of complex homeopathic combinations, as was primarily taught at colleges of natural therapies. Single dose constitutional homeopathy was only occasionally used in practice, largely due to the lack of training available at that time.
Thus, it was a fundamental shift to approach practice using only single doses of homeopathic medicines without any adjunct naturopathic therapies such as vitamin and mineral therapy or herbal medicine. The basic knowledge of homeopathic principles in Melbourne at that time could be termed as rudimentary. Notions such as ‘pathological generals’, ‘concomitants’ and repertory approaches of Boeninghausen and Boger were generally unknown or unappreciated in Australia.
What Dale brought to Melbourne through Dilip Dixit was revolutionary for therapists. Under the impetus of Dominie Dale a small group of dedicated practitioners formed the Homeopathic Intensive Group which was incorporated in 1985 as The Homeopathic Education and Research Association (HERA).
HERA organised weekly study sessions based on in-depth analysis of cured cases by its members and also ‘intensives’ run by Dr Dixit up to four times per year. The intensives were initially run over five (once ten) days-residential study formats where the fundamental operational homeopathic foundations were learned. Additionally the ICR programs of ‘life and living’, ‘perceiving’ and ‘concept of man’ via ‘action-learning’ were taught step by step, often at a snail’s pace. Intensives are now run over one three day weekend residential annually under the guidance of Dr Dixit. We also run ‘homeopathic Forums’ three times per year where topics in clinical medicine are delivered by specialists in the area followed by the presentation homeopathic perspectives and cured cases are presented .
From time to time senior members of HERA traveled to study with Dr Dixit and attended ICR intensives in Mumbai, further adding to the body of knowledge being disseminated. This culminated in 2005 when sixteen members, including associates from Brisbane spent three weeks residential training at the ICR Rural Homeopathic Hospital in Palghar, north of Mumbai. Click here to find out more about the 2005 Intensive Training Program in Palghar.
Apart from furthering our training as homeopathic physicians, our time at the Palghar hospital gave us an insight to how a small group of dedicated homeopaths in Mumbai struggled to slowly over thirty years build an infrastructure that has now become a major force in post-graduate homeopathic training in India.
We could not help but review our evolution over the last twenty years. HERA now has started to serve the community and further advance our training capacities by establishing community based clinics offering affordable homeopathic treatment to sections of society who would otherwise have limited access to homeopathic treatment. We have based these clinics along the lines developed by the ICR using the Standardised Case Record, and ‘observer training’ to fine-tune the training of both recent graduates and more experienced practitioners.
HERA had for some time operated the homeopathic College of Victoria, which offered diploma courses of homeopathy and occasional units in ICR methodology. Due to profession endorsed competency standards now operating under the Australian National Training Authority we have suspended these courses. However, a number of our senior members are involved in teaching homeopathy at various institutions. We are confident that we will be able to further our activities in this area in the future.
To date the activities of HERA have had minimal direct political impact in terms of influencing decision making in the Australian health sector. We have however been strong supporters of professional regulation both in terms of being involved in the establishment of the Victorian Register of Certified Homeopathic Practitioners (1995- 2001) and the current Australian Register of Homeopaths (AROH).
Further information:
History of Homeopathy in Melbourne:
Jacqueline Templeton Prince Henry's: The Evolution of a Melbourne Hospital, 1869-1969, published by Robertson and Mullens, Melbourne1969.